


gonna change his ways

by treacherous



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: M/M, also fluff but also not really, also implied that linda knows about ian/mickey which isn't really canon but just go with it thanks, he's not really in the actual story but it's basically all about him, mickey is only mentioned!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 22:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1202212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treacherous/pseuds/treacherous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ian asks linda to hire mickey at the kash and grab</p>
            </blockquote>





	gonna change his ways

**Author's Note:**

> lots and lots of italics and shameless use of parentheses. heaps of run on sentences because apparently sometimes i transform into ian gallagher and can’t really control my feelings about mickey milkovich. lots of linda, as well, because when has she ever not been great
> 
> wrote this forever ago. takes place back in s2, the night after the dugout when mickey gets out of jail.
> 
> (title from 'life is life' by noah & the whale)

Ian’s walk over to the Grab 'n' Save **—**  appropriately renamed so by Linda after a long night of thinking and maybe crying, which, Ian _so_ swears to her he didn’t see or hear when he walked in on her in the storage room. She pinned him to the wall and asked how long he’s been _fucking standing there_. And even if he _did_ see her, she shouldn’t be crying over Kash, because Kash's a fucking asshole. He doesn’t actually mention this to Linda because Ian knows she’d just spit out endless reasons on why he’s a fucking hypocrite, but he thinks it anyway. **—** is short because he just wants to get this fucking over with and doesn’t really want to see Linda’s face when he asks her to employ their former most frequent shoplifter.

Ian'd promised Mickey that he’d talk to Linda when they hung out at the dugout last night. Maybe it was the beer or the cigarettes or just being with Mickey for the first time in forever (actually 5 months and 23 days, but who’s counting, definitely not Ian), but he had somehow convinced himself that this was a good idea.

Ian stands at the door, sees Linda sitting behind the register, (he thinks he sees her cry for a moment but the windows were foggy and he chalks it up to just being nervous about the whole thing) and walks over to her. As soon as she sees Ian, she turns and walks from behind the register and towards him. She faces him after a minute.

Her eyes are puffy and red and she looks distracted. "I thought I gave you the day off?"

"You did… but I wanted to talk to you about something. Do you have a minute?"

Ian immediately looks down even though he hasn’t even mentioned Mickey yet. It’s not that he necessarily fears Linda (he does), it’s more so that he knows she’ll always resent him for the whole thing with Kash, (rightfully so, Ian thinks to himself) and he doesn’t want to ask for anything that’ll make things worse between the two of them (and not at all that in her own Linda logic, she blames Mickey for being the final straw and the final thing Kash could handle before going completely off the edge and walking away. And maybe that makes Ian’s blood boil a little bit because first of all, _leave Mickey out of this_ , and second of all, Ian doesn’t want anyone to think so low of Mickey. No. It’s not that at all).

Linda lets out a deep sigh and walks back behind the cash register. "Fine but make it fast. We close soon and it's inventory night."

Linda grabs her clipboard and walks over to the freezer section and starts to count off the items. Ian follows.

"Look, I know this is probably a lot to ask, and it may sound really fucked up coming from me of all people, but Kash is gone now and we’re getting a lot more stock now so we’ll need extra hands, and you're always complaining about how I don’t get things done fast enough and-"

"Ian! Spit it out, for fuck's sake." Ian takes a deep breath and looks down. "I want you to give Mickey a job."

He stops and looks at Linda, he flinches back almost like he expects her to laugh in his face or punch him or slap him or turn him away or do anything really, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t do anything.

After a minute, she goes back to counting the frozen pizzas and says, without looking at Ian, “fine.”

Ian almost chokes on his own words, but manages to speak. "What? Are you serious? Great! That’s great! And you know you really don’t really have to pay him much, it’s just that he's just gotten out of jail and he really just needs a steady just, and believe it or not he’s actually a really hard worker and he’s-"

"Ian, for Christ's sake, I already said yes, you don’t have to sell me on it." Linda keeps walking through the isle, flipping through the pages attached to her clipboard. She comes to a stop in the milk section and begins to count. Ian walks behind her and keeps his head to the ground, even when he speaks again.

"I know, it’s just - it’s just that I really thought you'd say no. I know Mickey’s not exactly your ideal employee right now but…" Ian trails off his sentence, (he doesn’t really even know what his fucking point is and he’s still too shocked to think straight) he thought he’d have to explain to Linda why Mickey's the best choice despite whatever reservations she might have about him and  _blah blah blah_ (and sue him if maybe he’d already thought out this scenario a million times over in his head last night when he'd gotten home from being with Mickey. His head was still spinning after having him twice and so he couldn't stop himself from making a mental list of why Mickey’s _so fucking great._  Maybe half of those reasons were the way Mickey felt under Ian last night, and how tight he held on to him, and how Mickey didn’t even say anything. Didn’t even flinch. And how when he was pulling his pants back up to his waist, he could see a fresh ring of bruises on his hips that Ian’s fingertips proudly left on him. And how he made Ian’s heart race when he talked to him like he didn’t give two shits about him suggesting him getting a job at the Grab 'n' Save, but Ian could see past that. Mickey _let him_ see past that, without telling him to fuck off like he used to. And maybe the other half was how fucking great he was at pool and poker and microwaving them pizza bagels and beating him at video games and other totally useless shit. And how he could go through a whole pack of cigarettes before three P.M. and how despite that, he’s the only person Ian knew that could run a faster mile than him. And maybe most of those things had fuck all to do with working in a convenient store, but by the time Ian had even gotten halfway through the list, he'd was so carried away that when Lip woke up in the middle of the night to take a piss, he made fun of Ian’s obvious heart eyes and told him to be careful or he’d get blue balls without even being near Mickey, and then turned off the light and told him to _go the fuck to sleep)._

"Listen, Ian, I'm saying yes but if there’s so much as a single cent missing from my cash register… he’s gone." Linda suddenly speaks and Ian jumps a little, caught off gaurd and deep in his thougts. He furiously nods and keeps swearing to her that he’ll be great and he’ll work hard and saying _thank you thank you thank you_ and _sorry for coming in so late_ and _I'll tell Mickey you said yes_ and _I’ll be in early tomorrow to help shelf the new stock_. And just as he’s about to leave Linda says, “Kash was sort of a bastard, wasn’t he?"

And Ian can’t help but laugh. "A _fucking_ bastard."

He keeps walking towards the door, smiling (mostly because he’s Ian and he has about zero self-preservation skills, but also because he’s thinking about Mickey and about how he’s his _co-worker_ now), but then he stops, somethinking gnawing at him. He turns back towards Linda, “Why’d you say yes?"

Linda sighs and stares at Ian. After a minute she responds, "I know Kash didn’t pull a gun on a fucking teenage boy for a goddamn candy bar. Kash is stupid, and bastard and an asshole and a pathetic little boy, but I know there was more to shooting Mickey than just losing a buck fifty for a fucking Snicker's." Linda turns and gives him a knowing look then turns back and continues counting the milk gallons.

Ian then turns and does something so simultaneously _him,_  yet still so out of character. He walks up behind Linda and places his hands on her shoulders. As quickly as possible, he places a kiss on Linda’s cheek and says, "Kash didn’t deserve you." Becuase he didn't. Ian turns and walks towards the door and thinks of Linda and how fucking _brave_ she is for just even standing there. Taking fucking inventory in a store that used to belong to her _fucking bastard_ husband. He can't help but wonder about Linda and Kash, and what the hell _either_ of them saw in him, and he's selfishly happy for a second that Kash is gone. But only for a second.

Ian walks home still smiling, happy to tell Mickey the news.

**Author's Note:**

> realllllly short i know and i'm sorry. i literally wrote this back in summer 2012 and it's been sitting in my computer since, so i'm sorry if it's shitty and kind of all over the place :(
> 
> anyway, i still hope you liked it and stuff!! comments would be great too but regardless, ily all :-)


End file.
